Plight of the Honey Bee

Plight of the Honey Bee

Dan
TefernNovember 29, 2012

Bees are the
guarantors of life on Earth.

Since times immemorial bees
have been the greatest indicator of overall environmental
quality and general well-being on planet Earth. Honey bees
are one of the most unique animals roaming our planet,
having evolved 35 million years ago from wasps; they possess
the most precise navigational ability of any animal known on
Earth! They are literally electro-magnetised and orientate
themselves according to the magnetic poles of the earth (a
process known as 'magnetic remanence').

No other animal on
Earth has this unique sense of orientation. Furthermore,
bees are one of the only animals (together with sharks and
electric eels) that have the ability to exploit the
electrical properties of nature during their day-to-day
activities. When feeding on nectar, a bee will build up an
electrostatic charge whilst flapping its wings against its
coat (200 times per second,) which in turn causes the pollen
from a flower to stick to their coat due to the charge
differential.

The Significance of Honey Bees

Why
are bees so important to humans and life on Earth as we know
it?

Contrary to animal reproduction, plants need to be
pollinated. Some plants can pollinate themselves (known as
self-pollination) but most require the presence of certain
mediators to disperse their pollen from one plant to
another. These mediators appear in the form of animals,
insects and the wind (cross-pollination). Honey bees
pollinate between 80 and 90 percent of all flowering crops,
constituting one third of everything human beings eat on
this Earth. Without honey bees, humans can say goodbye to
cucumbers, apples, strawberries, nuts, broccoli, asparagus,
blueberries and alfalfa- to name but a few species. Their
disappearance would threaten the entire beef and dairy
industries (as a knock-on effect from alfalfa disappearing -
as it is requisite in their feed). In the US alone, it has
been estimated that honeybees pollinate approximately $14
billion worth of seeds and crops, every year.

If honeybees
were to disappear completely, they would take almost all of
our insect-pollinated plants with them, hereby essentially
reducing our diet to nothing but water, another scarce
commodity on this planet.

Philosopy of the
Bee

Honey bees form a matriarchal society where
females make up 95% of the population. The sole function of
males is fertilising the queen. Honey bees are 'honourable'
animals not because they work hard, but because they work
hard for others. Prompting Shakespeare to say in Henry
V:

“For so work the honey-bees, creatures that by a rule
in nature teach the act of order to a peopled
kingdom.”

It seems that the perfect benchmark for any
given society would be having the bee community/ethos as a
role model. What we should really be striving to emulate is
the conscious empathy and life sustaining duties that the
bees do selflessly (with a little more work input from human
males over and above insemination duties).

A bee colony is
more like one holistic entity than it is a collection of
individuals.

Ultimately, for humans it all boils down to
philosophy. What view of the world is most in line with
everyone's thoughts? What is the truth? What is the best way
for us to live as humans? This essentially brings up two
polar opposite historical views in philosophy
namely;

Thomas Hobbes vs Baruch Spinoza

Are we merely a
collection of individuals or part of some holistic
collective? Should we care for each other or is it really
every human solely looking out for their own good? Imagine
what would happen to a bee colony if they adopted this
philosophy.

Thomas Hobbes’ philosophical views heavily
influenced the political doctrines of his time and also
hundreds of years later. Especially in the newly formed
America, his notions of individuality vs collective group
interest fell on fertile ground. Over the centuries it
subtly influenced economists and in turn the global
community collectively.

Spinoza said that for a concept of
god to make any sense at all, it must be part of Nature, not
separate from it. God could not be something outside Nature
controlling it, but must be part of it. According to
Spinoza, God IS Nature. Einstein loved Spinoza.

Einstein's
God:

Hobbes: “The condition of man... is a condition of
war of everyone against everyone.”

Underlying the
fundamental question: Are we responsible for each other's
well-being? What is the social contract? Is compassion
important as the head corner stone of society, if yes, are
we neglecting it?

The French philosopher Jean-Jacques
Rousseau described such a binding human contract in his
genius doctrine: The Social Contract. Here he set out to
describe exactly what these duties we have to each other are
and why they were necessary? He believed all citizens should
be bound to this contract, that it shouldn't be voluntary
like Hobbes would advocate in his slightly cynical view of
human society. Incidentally Hobbes paved the way for social
Darwinism before Charles Darwin had ever even been born. He
wasn’t a great believer in people or their place in the
animal kingdom. On Tolstoy, alluding to the mystery of bees,
said that they “occupied territories beyond our
comprehension” and as such would never be fully
understood. And truly enough, much of the behaviour and
unique abilities of honey bees still baffles
biologists.

But what is happening to the
bees?

Colony Collapse disorder (CCD) was first
recorded in North America and Europe in late 2006 where
whole worker bee populations of many hives vanished for no
apparent reason, in turn causing the collapse of the entire
hive/colony.

Possible causes outlined by
science:

• Varoa Mites and other insect pathogens
(Nosema apis – fungus – most common … Israel
Acute Paralysis virus also infects bees though not believed
to be responsible for CCD)

• Industrial monoculture
crops (soy/corn from Monsanto seeds) leading to
environmental stress (due to unnatural conditions) coupled
to use of pesticides causing degradation of digestive tract
(malnutrition) and in turn weakening of immune response
making the worker bees more susceptible to diseases and
pathogens.

• Systemic pesticides initially employed to
get rid of certain parasitic aphid and locust population in
major crops, spilling over into bee population, in turn
leading to cascade of genetic abnormalities in 2nd and 3rd
generations of progeny

Most likely it is a combination of all
the above factors (a synergistic event) causing the overall
weakening of the species. Fluctuations in bee populations
have been noted before historically but never entire
colonies disappearing across the whole world.

Nonetheless
it has been proven scientifically that certain systemic
pesticides are directly responsible for the decrease. In
particular the neonicotinoids, a neuroactive class of
insecticides, have been shown to impact the bees directly by
causing specific neurodegenerative effects that can lead to
a worker bee's loss of navigational ability and in turn a
neglect to feed the rest of the colony, hereby bringing
about its collapse. The build-up or 'bioaccumulation' of
these chemicals is what is really hurting the bees as a
species. We are now seeing the effects across generations of
unrestrained human use of pesticides. One of the scariest
facts about these substances is that some can directly
interfere with a process known as DNA methylation (an
essential step in gene expression and replication,) which
means that once they enter the food chain, their
interference with DNA replication can lead to mutations on a
meta level - with whole species extinction, on a scale
unimaginable and a scope that reaches far beyond just our
own immediate vicinity, not being out of the question.

The
potential knock-on effects through bioaccumulation are so
grave, that the collapse of the entire food chain is a
possible scenario. The French, German and Italian health
ministries, all banned the use of neonicotinoids in
2008-2009 due to public protests and targeted collective
pressure by the local bee keepers unions.

Furthermore, a
study of bumble bees published in the scientific journal
Nature in October this year showed a distinct, statistically
significant correlation between neonicotinoids and bee
behaviour related to colony collapse disorder. Here the
scientists showed that chronic exposure to these pesticides
is adversely affecting worker bee behaviour; hereby
jeopardising the survival of the colony and in turn the
entire species. This is the sixth study published this year
implicating pesticides as the culprit in the collapse
phenomenon. We need to re-evaluate our approach to
farming.

The extreme weather fluctuations of the past 40
years (in particular temperatures) have lead to
environmental strain and the appearance of novel pathogens.
These weather fluctuations are happening due to global
warming and climate change through the excessive burning of
fossil fuels and pollution that causes natural habitats to
become increasingly volatile, in turn not providing the
stable homeostatic environment required for animal and plant
populations to live and grow healthily.

The practice of
mass cultivation apiaries of bees and industrial crops has
given rise to conditions never seen before in Nature and
some bee keepers believe it is this unnatural, artificially
created environment that is giving rise to new diseases that
are affecting bee populations.

Bee farming on a commercial
scale results in genetic engineering through artificial
insemination of the Queen Bee, where Queen Bee replacement
strategies are employed (here a biologist will remove the
queen from the hive after just 5 months, replacing her with
a younger, more “productive” queen that has been
genetically selected for- this action alone causes massive
unrest in the colony and could be why some worker bees
abandon the hive – it’s a bit like a young child having
their mother replaced every 5 months). These industrial bee
farmers also remove the honey (the food for the colony) and
replace it with high sugar-content sugar syrup as substitute
– organic farmers liken this to taking a child off a
healthy diet and instead making them eat fast-food for the
rest of their life (results in metabolic disorders and
neurodegenerative diseases). – (VISUAL)

Industrial
monocultures with genetically engineered seeds (soya and
corn) also create an unnatural environment- there are whole
patches of the Mid-western US that are only one type of crop
over thousands of acres. Bees cannot survive in these types
of environments as they rely on the presence of a multitude
of species for overall survival and wellbeing.

“Take the
bees out of their natural environment and Mother Nature
comes along brings fungus/parasite to get rid of what is not
supposed to be there”(Dee Lusby, bee researcher and
co-inventor of the descriptor: colony collapse
disorder)

Both types of industrial cultivation (of bees
and crops) are driven by the profit incentives of Big
Agriculture (Big Chemical and Big Seed companies). These
corporations are responsible for creating the demand for
certain products by inadvertently advertising the numbers
they can reach with wholesale growing approaches. In an-ever
growing market place (world population) these targets
dictate local customs due to the fact that at such volumes,
the produce from these Mega farms often undercuts local
pricing of traditional farmers, hereby putting them out of
business.

Hence this laissez faire approach has subjected
the entire discipline of farming to the influences of the
market and capitalistic forces – hereby not only affecting
our local environment (genetic cross-contamination of
species, general pollution of this scale of production) but
also slowly destroying local communities by putting their
farmers out of business. So the business of mass-scale
monoculture not only affects the human species on a
physiological but also on a psychological and sociological
level.

History of the Bees

Bees were given a
divine status in Ancient Egypt – their honey was referred
to as the “Nectar of the Gods” and symbolises Mother
Nature and the sacred feminine in Greek and Roman
tradition.

A sign of good fortune: a bee landing on your
house was a sign of a celestial blessing in Ancient Egypt.
The bee was thought to be prophetic, an omen of sorts
bringing health and balance to all she visited upon. In many
cultures, honey was used as a panacea for every malady under
the sun – it seems ironic that nowadays our panacea
appears to be the large scale use of chemical intervention
to solve problems of productivity in Nature – this panacea
in turn leads to the death of another historical panacea
(namely honey) by targeting its makers, the bees.

Recently
it has also been discovered that bee venom has medicinal
properties, it has been used for treating arthritis,
multiple sclerosis and even fibromyalgia, and more recently
to treat sexual dysfunction, cancer, epilepsy and
depression.

It is important to note that the systemic
pesticides used today were designed in the same labs used
for the purpose of research into chemical weapons during
World War I and II.

“Pesticides moved from the
battlefield on to the dinner tables within a generation”
(P. Mimkes, Coalition against Bayer Dangers)

What can
we do?

In conclusion, it is as much a fault of our
out-of-control industrial-style farming practices that
inadvertently abide by the laws of free-market economics by
being under the control of corporations, as it is our own
misunderstanding of what the best system for society really
is. Should we be solely focussed on wealth accumulation i.e.
profit above all else capitalism by putting profit before
more holistic goals like keeping the planet safe and in
balance?

Bees are responsible for the fertilisation of
nearly 80% of the food on Earth and it is estimated in the
US alone for $15 billion worth of fruits and
vegetables.

So it is a commodity with value – this
presents a double-edged sword regarding the traditional
cultivation vs industrial “milking” of the commodity to
maximise the profit for the large corporations (their legal
obligation to their shareholders). It almost seems as if the
bees presents a powerful opportunity for us to address the
proverbial elephant in the room regarding our collective
attitude towards certain economic principles (i.e. for
profit ventures that result in the decimation of
intrinsically important stalwarts of our environment, over
and above the obvious pollution of the Earth through
large-scale industry itself). It’s almost as if the
decline in the global bee population is the alarm bell for
us. Nature is ringing in order to wake up those of us still
sat in the corner with our blinkers on hoping that “the
whole problem will just go away” or worse haphazardly
sweeping it under the carpet. If the bees disappear, this
planet will become uninhabitable for Homo sapiens and
most other living beings. They are essential to the entire
system, yes we could eventually manufacture food ourselves
in Petri dishes and utilise hydroponic indoor vegetable
farms, but would we be able to make the food mimic the
quality of what it is we would normally grow according to
the way the food was designed to grow i.e. come into
being?

Without Nature what is this Earth? In the US, a 96%
decline of some species of honey bees has been recorded in
recent years, whereas in New Zealand over the last years the
decline witnessed has been relatively 'mild' in comparison
(at last consensus 2011, the population has decreased by
30%).

But then something happened that held the world in
awe. It was reported in September 2012 that the bee hives in
Auckland region had gone silent indicating that the worker
bees had abandoned their hives. What was worrying was the
rate at which this started happening. Over 70% of the bee
hives were believed to be affected by colony collapse
disorder. And it all happened over a period of two months.
This was the fastest rate witnessed at such a high volume in
the entire world. Auckland bee keepers were stunned.

As
opposed to the continuing decline in North America and New
Zealand, certain countries in Europe have seen a stabilising
effect of their bee populations. The difference between
these geographic regions is primarily the response of the
respective Ministry of Environments in European countries
that have voted to ban systemic pesticides like the
neonicotinoids, from use in farming and the curbing of the
industrial scale approach.

In contrast to the US, New
Zealand does not really employ industrial farming or
monocultures, but our local farmers are still allowed to
pollute the environment by using the toxic pesticides banned
in most of Europe. The push has to come from somewhere as
these pesticides have an environmental impact over and above
affecting bee populations, their neurotoxic qualities affect
our food supply and whilst mammals do not get affected as
extremely as insects, these chemicals do exhibit certain
neurodegenerative effects in mammals, including humans, too.
This alone should cause enough concern for people to
act.

The fact that the majority of the environmental
strain on our planet is being caused by corporations seeking
profits, spurs an anthropomorphic thought analogy regarding
the ecological and behavioural differences between wasps and
bees, as this is actually quite an apt metaphor for what is
happening here. Bees evolved from wasps about 35 million
years ago, long before the first Homo sapien species walked
the Earth bipedally.

Wasps are predators that feed on the
weak and defenceless in the animal kingdom- they are often
greedy and often parasitic, some wasps eat so much that
their abdomens literally burst. Bees feed on nectar and are
the providers for the entire ecosystem of our planet,
consciously pollinating almost all food crops and plants
that exist. They are selfless and live in an egalitarian,
matriarchal society. Wasps are mostly solitary looking out
only for themselves, if they pollinate flowers and plants,
it happens by accident.

Colony collapse disorder is the
direct result of the last 150 years of human industrialism,
of us recklessly polluting the environment like we owned the
planet, all in the name of profit. There are specific
products that have been empirically linked to the collapse
phenomenon.

One company in particular is a massive
culprit. Initially they produced chemical weapons during the
Second World War, then they used the exact same chemical
processes and compounds to make pesticides when the war was
over and their profits waned. Literally in the same
laboratories.

This chemical warfare was extended to the
animal kingdom and the bioaccumulation of these toxins in
animal species is causing an environmental catastrophe on a
scale never witnessed before in history. Over 50% of all
species are on the decline or going extinct.

Over and
above bees, whole species are disappearing due to
deleterious mutations caused by these novel chemicals.
Whenever nature senses something that is not supposed to be
there, it gets rid of it.

It’s not only the flora and
fauna that is affected, we are all eating these toxins every
day, they are in our food chain. The bizarre and slightly
surreal part is that we don't have this technology because
we have to use pesticides to sustain farming, no; we needed
pesticides in order to do farming on an industrial
scale.

No communal farmer uses these products. Only the
giant food companies use them because it increases their
crop yield and in turn their cash flow. No one talks about
the fact that over 50% of all this food produced from this
type of farming gets thrown away before it even reaches any
dinner plate. This scale of farming brings production price
down and profits up. Nothing else.

We don't need these
crop yields to 'feed the world' because the corporations
don't care about that and never will. Their sole motive is
profit; to feed the defenceless and in turn make them weak
and eat them.

Corporations are wasps. Human beings are
bees.

Something has to change. If bee pollination ceases
completely this world will be in a serious bind, we are
already manipulating entire crop genomes to prepare for this
event. When it happens and it seems like we're pretty close
to that tipping point, our lives as human beings on this
fragile planet will change forever. Imagine for a second a
world without bees? What will our environment look like with
no plants and flowers? No more cross pollination, a process
that is so essential in order to ensure the natural genetic
diversity required for the survival of all living
things.

But there is a way out. There is hope. A solution
that we can all take part in and proactively help make
things better and in the process it will bring us closer
together as a species: Because we are all to blame. The
funny thing is, we actually control these corporations; with
our forks, with our brains, with our knowledge and with our
collective awareness.

It just takes a bit of a shift of
behaviour on everyone's part. Every person everywhere has to
change their ways and use their brains. Vote and shop
intelligently and most importantly, sustainably. If
anything, for the bees and for our own survival. We don't
own this planet, we are mere visitors.

Auckland city bees
are disappearing, at an alarming rate, over a short period
of time. Three quarters of all hives in two months. An
unprecedented rate, never seen before in the world (average
collapse rate is 6-8 months.)

Now with New Zealand
affected, colony collapse disorder has officially become a
global phenomenon.

Alarm bells are ringing.

Poland and
Hungary have already banned most Monsanto corn from use on
their land. France, Italy, Germany and Slovenia have decided
to ban certain neonicotinoid products that were deemed
harmful to the environment by the effect they were having on
bee populations.

Furthermore, November saw a large debate
stirring in the UK parliament regarding pesticide usage on
seeds and subsequent ramifications on pollinating insects,
with a particular focus on the honey bees. Various British
MP’s are arguing that UK laws are outdated and do not take
into account the full impact that chemical industries are
having on our environment. What is being called for is a
legal framework that protects our environment from the
harmful effects of industrial pollution.

It's time us
Kiwis pulled our socks up and started living up to our
reputation as a “100% Pure” green folk that has no
qualms about rising up to what is possibly the most
important challenge we will ever face in our entire
lives.

“There is
another sky,Ever serene and fair,And there is
another sunshine,Though it be darkness there;Never
mind faded forests, Austin,Never mind silent fields
-Here is a little forest,Whose leaf is ever
green;Here is a brighter garden,Where not a frost
has been;In its unfading flowersI hear the bright
bee hum:Prithee, my brother,Into my garden
come!”

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